“Tratado de lágrimas” by José María Sánchez-Verdú: A Contemporary Musical Materialisation of the Lamentations of Jeremiah
This paper presents a hermeneutic analysis of Tratado de lágrimas (2017–2021)—Treatise on Tears in English—by José María Sánchez-Verdú, a cycle for countertenor and accordion comprising three pieces (Lectio I, Lectio II, and Lectio III) based on the Lamentations of Jeremiah, a text traditionally associated in Catholicism with the Tenebrae services of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. This text provides deeply lyrical and poetic material, rich in imagery that captures the sorrow of the Jewish people over the destruction of Jerusalem. Sánchez-Verdú draws on diverse sources, from the motet-chanson Plaine de deuil by Josquin des Prez to a 16th-century hymnal, crafting an intertextual work that revisits the theme of “lament” in a manner reminiscent of its Renaissance conception. Beyond its intertextual connections, Tratado de lágrimas emerges as a true compendium of musical gestures that aim to convey the pain embedded in the text. Much of this gestural expression is related to a natural physiological response to pain and sadness; however, there are also musical gestures that evoke a more extroverted, almost theatrical expression of grief, undoubtedly connecting with the bodily manifestation of mourners—figures commonly present in the funeral rites of ancient cultures like the Egyptian and Hebrew. The prophet Jeremiah himself, in his proclamation of the ruin and exile of the Jewish people, refers to mourners (lamentatrices) as an essential element for expressing the suffering caused by the devastation of Zion. In Sánchez-Verdú’s Tratado de lágrimas, the voice and accordion intertwine to create a discourse filled with madrigalisms and rhetorical figures historically associated with expressions of sorrow and sadness, such as the pianto, suspiratio, and passus duriusculus. This paper reveals the compositional resources and borrowings Sánchez-Verdú employs to create a musical lament, along with the symbolic connections and emotional meanings these elements bring to a contemporary musical materialisation of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.
Keywords: musical analysis, Spanish contemporary music, lament, intertextuality
Biography
Valentín Benavides is a choir conductor, composer, Doctor of Musicology, and Professor at the University of Valladolid (Spain). He has received several international composition awards, including the XXIV “Cristóbal Halffter” Prize. His research focuses on the presence of the past in contemporary music, specifically on the survival of musical gestures that convey emotional meanings throughout history. He is a member of the Spanish Society of Musicology (SEdeM) and the Society for Music Analysis and Theory (SATMUS). He is currently involved in the research project “Topics, Dialogues, and Identities in Spanish Music: 18th–20th Centuries.”
University of Valladolid, Spain – valentin.benavides@uva.es